Off the wire
• Weather information for Asia-Pacific cities  • Create games, build website, find out about hardware: EU Code Week to kick off  • China Focus: Holiday traffic renews calls for paid leave  • China to propose seabed area names  • (Sports)Indonesia to send top players to badminton tournaments in Europe  • HK, Macao to begin negotiations on CEPA  • Up to 7,000 migrants, refugees arriving daily in Greece in past week: IOM  • Palestinian flag to be raised at UN headquarters at Geneva  • EU justice ministers agree on data protection directive  • EU adopts specifications for health warnings on cigarette packages  
You are here: 　 Home

Nadal reaches first hard-court semifinal for 2015 in Beijing

Xinhua, October 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Former China Open winner Rafael Nadal recovered from a set down to defeat Jack Sock 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 for his first hard-court semifinal of the year here on Friday.

"We don't going to celebrate now with semifinals on hard court. That's the real thing. I'm happy for that. But I was close to being in the semifinals of hard courts a few times this year. I lost a few matches, tough ones. But I think is not a big news that I am in a semifinal of a hard court tournament. I hope to be in a lot of semifinals until the end of my career," third seeded Nadal said.

Nadal had beaten the American once before in the fourth round at Roland Garros this year and despite dropping the opening set, he found his range in the second set. He saved a break point while serving for the set and went on to level the match when Sock netted a backhand return. Afte that, the Spaniard never looked back.

Nadal hit 10 less winners than Sock's 29 but was the more consistent of the two. He committed 10 less unforced errors than his opponent's 35.

"This year I lost a lot of matches when I had an advantage. So having the chance to win a match when I start losing first one is important for me," the 2005 China Open winner added.

Nadal will be in the semifinals taking on Italian Fabio Fognini, who beat Nadal several times this season.

"I lost to him in the US Open, I lost to him in Rio, and I lost to him in Barcelona this year, and I won in the final of Hamburg, so he's a great player. If I am able to play my best tomorrow, I am going to have my chances. If not, the match is going to be tough. It's simple. Sport is simple." Endi